Pueblo D60 teachers already planning for strike, another school cancels class

Yet another school canceled class in Pueblo after so many teachers called out on Tuesday. Risley International Academy of Innovation sat empty and with just six days left until D60 teachers are set to strike, the district is taking notice.

Dalton Sprouse, communications director for D60 said, “what we’re seeing now with these rolling sickouts is an organized work action that we want to prevent and we want to reach some sort of resolution and move forward.”

The call-outs are already causing a potential problem for the district. The state requires 1056 contact hours, and D60 requires 1080, and some schools are struggling to meet those.

Corwin International Magnet School is can only afford to miss 2 hours and 20 minutes of contact hours before missing their mark.

It’s still unclear if the state will intervene the union’s decision to strike. Suzanne Ethredge, president of Pueblo Education Association says, “they could come in and choose to mediate themselves or they could choose to do nothing.”

In the case of a strike, teachers are already preparing, Ethredge said, “we are encouraging teachers to remove personal belongings, stuff that belongs solely to them and to put them in a safe place and make sure things like grades are caught up.”

D60 is also preparing and coming up with a plan if hundreds of teachers don’t show up to class. Sprouse said, “we’re currently looking at that and we have been all along. Obviously, our school district doesn’t feel like it’s in the best interest of anyone to move forward with the strike. We truly hope that this can somehow be resolved before it results in further job action.”

If the state doesn’t intervene, teachers will on strike Monday, May 7th.